The musings, rants, ideas, stories, & misadventures of one man in the LowCountry...

Friday, June 5, 2009

Beer & Bike...without the biking...

Thursday night was supposed to be Bike & Beer night out at Marrington Plantation, but the rain had been coming down all day and this only makes things much worse on an already waterlogged trail...So, just when I was planning on getting on the spin bike and doing a few boring hours, Don calls me up and mentions he is about to start making some homebrew...I am a amateur craft brewer myself and really have been curious to see his setup since he brews from all grain instead of starting with mash extract like I do, so I roll over as quickly as possible. I arrive just as he is starting the second stage which is steeping the grains in 154degree water for about an hour...The next step is called sparging which consists of carefully pouring 175degree water over the top of the "mash tun" and opening a valve on the bottom of the mash tun to allow the sweet grain water be forced out...The heavier cooler sugar water will go downwards and into the wort boiler...From this point on, everything is similar to what I do, depending on the recipe desired...but the setup that Don has is very impressive and rekindles my desire to create something similar. Did I mention that during this timely set of steps, we had a chance to sample a few of Don's recently created masterpieces? MadDaddyPat joined us in downing a few pints of select ales....It was a good Thursday night after all!